User:Clevans/EMind

I (Clevans) am working on a native FreeMind application for iPhone.

Unfortunately, since the iPhone does not support Java, a straight port is out of the question. I have created a native application called "eMind" which looks very similar to FreeMind but is a "from the ground up" new application. The interface has been reworked to fit the iPhone's unique strengths, such as multi-touch. Since eMind is not supported by the same development team as FreeMind and shares no code with it, I have chosen a new name (based on my last initial) for the iPhone version to highlight these differences. I hope this difference in name will help to abate confusion between the two applications.

Current State of eMind

The eMind native iPhone application is currently in private alpha. There are still several key features missing. If you would like to request to be included in the alpha, please send your UDID to cevans42ca at yahoo dot ca.

To see the supported gestures, see iPhone Gestures.

The following features will have to be implemented to move to beta

• The editor opens in the top left hand corner. If you have nothing in the top left hand corner of your existing mind map, a completely blank screen will be the first thing you see.
• With really large maps, really bizarre display corruption can occur. If this problem happens to you, you can tap the back navigation button to go back to the main menu, sync the map with your desktop, and continue working on it there. Instead of bugging out like that, eMind should:
  • Try to automatically close big nodes when loading large maps.
  • Warn the user when the map is getting too big (2000 pixels by 1000 pixels (either way) would make a good hard limit).
  • Try to close nodes if the map gets too large.
  • Tell the user the map is too big.
  • Later on actually support big maps with scrolling subviews.
• Undo/Redo are not available yet.
• You can close nodes that have no children. In this case a little circle shows up to indicate the node is closed/folded. Yet there are no children, so when you unfold/open the node the circle simply disappears.
• Mind maps are automatically saved when you navigate back, if you're editing an existing mind map. If you don't want to save, you must tap "Options" and then "Close Without Saving". There should be some sort of message asking if the user wants to save, or at least a message saying whether or not the save was successful.
• Gestures need more work.
• Rudimentary icon support. In particular, nodes with only an icon in them are nearly impossible to work with, because they aren't very big (and don't display anything).
• If the editing session is interrupted (phone call, sync, etc.) eMind should continue where the user left off. It should also handle the "! Autosave" file more cleanly by (at least) telling the user that a new file was created for a map that didn't have a filename yet. That way the user can take the appropriate action by renaming or deleting the file, or whatever the user desires.
• Cut, copy and paste of nodes (and possibly text) should work across different files.

Other items of Note

• The button bar does not display in landscape mode. Three finger gestures would be nearly impossible if it was displayed.
• It would be nice if the keyboard displayed immediately when editing a node.